Why do some Hollywood leading men stay on the A-List for decades while many of their equally gorgeous female co-stars disappear after a few years?
Learn more about Kathleen Turner, the Romancing the Stone actor who starred alongside Steve Martin, Michael Douglas, and Jack Nicholson.
On June 19, 1954, Kathleen Turner was born to devout Christians who discouraged her acting aspirations in Springfield, Missouri.
In Turner’s words, “Theatre and acting were just one step up from being a streetwalker because my father was of missionary stock.”.
They resided in Venezuela, Cuba, and Canada due to her father’s employment with the USFS. Kathleen moved away from her parents to pursue a career as a stage performer at a London high school.
Turner recalled her childhood, “There were seven of us, the theatre mafia.”. “We selected plays, produced, directed, performed, and fired one teacher while hiring another”.
After Kathleen’s father passed away when she was 17, her family moved to Springfield, Missouri.
She started advocating for women’s rights and healthcare all her life after volunteering at a local Planned Parenthood. She lends at Planned Parenthood’s Board of Advocates, Child Help USA, and City Meals On Wheels in New York City.
Herbert Blau at Southwest Missouri State University strumbled upon Turner. He encouraged her to attend the University of Maryland, where she received a BFA.
Following her role debut in The Doctors, Turner became well-known for her outstanding performance in the 1981 suspense film Body Heat.
Turner went on to star in The Man with Two Brains and Romancing the Stone after Body Heat’s commercial success. War of the Roses and Jewel of the Nile brought Douglas, DeVito, and Turner back together.
For her performances in Prizzi’s Honor (1985) and Romancing the Stone (1984), Turner received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.
Robert Ebert penned these words about Prizzi’s Honor in 1985: “This is the strangest comedy in many a month, a movie so dark, so cynical, and so funny that probably only Jack Nicholson and Kathleen Turner could have kept straight faces during the love scenes.”.
Turner is a seductive mob hitman who collaborates with New York City hitman Charley Partanna, played by Jack Nicholson.
“Prizzi’s Honor reinforced the perception of me as a cunning woman, but I must admit there are times in Prizzi when my character is just this newlywed—got her job, but she’s making casseroles—that I like,” Turner admitted to David Sheff.
My husband and friends say it’s out there,” she affirmed. I have little interest in learning. ”.
The following year, Turner played Peggy Sue, a time traveler who goes back to her 1960s school days, in Peggy Sue Got Married.
In 2018, Turner remarked, “It was a very unwelcoming environment for women.”. “The disdain, the sense of being a prop”.
Turner has had a fruitful career in theater since the middle of the 1980s, but she might never win another prize.
Turner’s second significant stage performance earned her a Tony Award in 1990 for portraying Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. She won the Outstanding Broadway Debut honor from Theatre World for her performance in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Tallulah, The Graduate, and indiscretions all followed Turner.
She portrayed Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf for three years, earning the actor a second Tony nomination for the performance.
Elizabeth Taylor portrayed Martha in the 1966 adaptation, which Turner detested. In a 2018 Vulture interview, she said about the Hollywood legend: “For a while, I felt like half my existence was doing her wrongs right… Pay attention to her tone of voice. It’s awful. ”.
She concluded, “She wasn’t very skilled.
But for God’s sake, I was fortunate to perform the play and present the comedy. ”.
With parts in Undercover Blues, The Virgin Suicides, and Beautiful, Turner built on her success on stage.
Jessica Rabbit’s voice was gravelly in the 1988 animated film Roger Rabbit. In Friends, she played Charles Bing, the drag queen father of Chandler Bing.
Turner acknowledged to Vulture that she struggled to integrate into the snobby Friends cast.
Turner said of the cast, “I’ll be honest, as I always am: I didn’t feel particularly welcomed.”. “I remember wearing this difficult sequined gown, and my high heels were just hurting me. I found it strange that none of the actors offered to seat me. ”.
One of the more senior crew members told Miss Turner to get a chair at some point, she recalled. “The Friends actors were such a clique, but my encounter with them was not exceptional. ”.
In the 1990s, Kathleen Turner’s rheumatoid arthritis caused “inexplicable pains and fevers.”.
She required assistance getting out of bed by 1994. Turner managed her rheumatoid arthritis by combining biotech medicine with gymnastics.
She recalled her rheumatoid arthritis education campaign from 2002 by saying, “The year before I was diagnosed was terrifying.”. I failed to grasp it. ”.
She said, “I didn’t know why I was so sick and in such pain. “I am interested in this campaign because I want people to know they can obtain information, manage this illness, and stand up for their lives and way of life. Assistance is readily available. ”.
Turner’s situation was frequently distressing, especially in the news, but she didn’t let it stop her.
After receiving a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis in 1992, she claimed in 2018 that she disregarded the doctor’s advice that she would spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair. “I can’t emphasize enough the battle I waged against the excruciating suffering and horror of who I had become”.
She said, “I had to keep my illness hidden for years. Being called a drunk and being reprimanded for my appearance was embarrassing. Even with his drinking problem, Robert Downey Jr., the studios employed. People wouldn’t approach me if I admitted to having an unmanaged illness”.
Real estate tycoon Jay Weiss and Kathleen Turner got divorced in 2007.
I don’t mind that I’m still referred to as a sexual icon nearly 40 years after [Body Heat], the 66-year-old Jessica Rabbit actor says. That occurred a long time ago”.
Turner instructs Practical Acting at New York University.
To Shondaland in 2020, she remarked, “I love teaching. “I can explain it in detail. ”.
She said, “I’m tough on them, and I don’t take amateurs, only people with a certain skill level.”. “If not, I wouldn’t be useful. ”.
Many more years in the spotlight are due to Kathleen Turner.